The Bad Kids

Filmmakers: Kieth Fulton, Lou PepeRuntime: 101 minutes

Synopsis:The Bad Kids is an observational documentary that chronicles one extraordinary principal’s mission to realize the potential of these students whom the system has deemed lost causes. Employing a verité approach during a year at the school, the film follows Principal Vonda Viland as she coaches three at-risk teens––a new father who can’t support his family, a young woman grappling with sexual abuse, and an angry young man from an unstable home– through the traumas and obstacles that rob them of their spirit and threaten their goal of a high school diploma.

About The Filmmakers

Keith Fulton (Producer / Director / Sound) and Lou Pepe (Producer/Director/Cinematographer) are award-winning filmmakers of both documentary and fiction films, among them Lost in La Mancha, which was nominated for the European Film Award for Best Documentary, shortlisted for the Best Documentary Oscar, and winner of the Evening Standard’s Peter Sellers Award. Lost in La Mancha stands as the first and only verité chronicle of the collapse of a major motion picture and was an international theatrical success. Fulton and Pepe also directed the narrative feature film Brothers of the Head, which won the coveted Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature in 2006. As Low Key Pictures, the directing team received numerous documentary commissions from the Gates Foundation’s Teaching Channel, for which they produced a series of short films about excellent teachers and practices in California public schools. For Participant Media, they created I Am Education, a web series that explored pressing issues in education entirely through the voices and perspectives of school children. Fulton and Pepe are also the authors of numerous screenplays, including The Wizards of Perfil, which made the Hollywood Black List in 2007. The team also created Malkovich’s Mail, one of the first original documentary programs for AMC. Fulton and Pepe hold MFAs in film production from Temple University and are alumni of the Sundance Institute’s Writing and Directing Labs. With The Bad Kids they were invited to participate in the 2014 Sundance Catalyst Forum and have recently become recipients of the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program Grant.

Lou Pepe (Producer/ Director/ Cinematographer) and Keith Fulton (Producer/Director/Sound) are award-winning filmmakers of both documentary and fiction films, among them Lost in La Mancha, which was nominated for the European Film Award for Best Documentary, shortlisted for the Best Documentary Oscar, and winner of the Evening Standard’s Peter Sellers Award. Lost in La Mancha stands as the first and only verite chronicle of the collapse of a major motion picture and was an international theatrical success. Fulton and Pepe also directed the narrative feature film Brothers of the Head, which won the coveted Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature in 2006. As Low Key Pictures, the directing team received numerous documentary commissions from the Gates Foundation’s Teaching Channel, for which they produced a series of short films about excellent teachers and practices in California public schools. For Participant Media, they created I Am Education, a web series that explored pressing issues in education entirely through the voices and perspectives of school children. Fulton and Pepe are also the authors of numerous screenplays, including The Wizards of Perfil, which made the Hollywood Black List in 2007. The team also created Malkovich’s Mail, one of the first original documentary programs for AMC. Fulton and Pepe hold MFAs in film production from Temple University and are alumni of the Sundance Institute’s Writing and Directing Labs. With The Bad Kids they were invited to participate in the 2014 Sundance Catalyst Forum and have recently become recipients of the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program Grant.